I often think it can often be very difficult for comedians to revisit the same gag. I think Russell's a bit more than a comedian.

Bridget Jones is part of literary lore now and actually to be a part of it is enormously flattering.

I was gearing up for it. I took some singing lessons. And I opened my mouth, and Atom promptly said, 'That's not going to happen. We love your voice, but maybe we could use some of your English wit.' He had doubts about it from way back. For starters, we weren't going to be doing the Italian-American crooning thing.

I don't know if there's a problem with original ideas... I think a healthy film industry should have a good supply of good, original writing.

I'm fully aware that if I were to change professions tomorrow, become an astronaut and be the first man to land on Mars, the headlines in the newspapers would read: `Mr. Darcy Lands on Mars.

There's no point in it unless it's a story that you really want to tell. It's a nebulous job. Unless you're doing it well, you're not doing anything. And there are a few of those. It's perfectly possible to be a passenger on a film set because if somebody else has written it, you can make nothing of that role and that's exactly what bad directors do.

My grandmother was a minister as well, which was not that common in the 1930s.